Busan is good

Foreign Investors to Receive Tax Breaks

Contents

An LCD plant, a Samsung Electronics-Sony joint venture in Korea, will likely not have to pay corporate taxes thanks to Korea’s decision to give further benefits to foreign investors setting up shop here.

The Ministry of Finance and Economy said yesterday that it is planning to attract foreign investors by giving them tax benefits and other incentives, and by easing regulations.

 

The proposed revision will apply to both profit-generating and non-profit corporations.

 

The bill will be voted on during the regular session of the National Assembly, which started this month.

 

The ministry also said that it would lower the requirement for a cash support program on foreign-invested research and development facilities. Currently, facilities that have more than $5 million in foreign investment and with more than 20 researchers with masters’ or doctors’ degrees are eligible for the cash incentive from the government. Under the revised law, there will be no requirement for the amount of foreign investment, and the minimum number of researchers will be lowered to 10.

 

The ministry also said that it will continue to give corporate tax and income tax benefits to S-LCD, a joint venture of Republic of Korea​’s Samsung Electronics and Japan’s Sony.

 

The joint LCD plant is located in Tangjeong, Chungcheongnam-do, with Samsung owning shares of 50 percent plus one.

 

Sony invested $923 million in 2004 in the factory, and it is going to spend $900 million more in expanding the facility by 2007. The ministry expected that the Samsung-Sony venture will create up to 23,000 new jobs with two trillion won ($2.08 billion) of annual production.

 

During the meeting, the ministry also decided to give two international schools subsidies of 11.2 billion won ($11.7 million).

 

An international school opening in 2009 in Busan will get 10 billion won, while another o ne being built in Daejeon will receive 1.2 billion won, the ministry said.

 

The source of news : The Korea Times, 09-13-2006